Date: Sun, 05 Jan 2003 17:54:04 +0000
From: Stephanie M
Subject: Black Eyes, Blue Tears 22/22

Title: Black Eyes, Blue Tears 22/22
Author: Stephanie M
Summary: AJ discovers the truth behind Lance and JC's intense relationship.
Feedback: This is not my normal type of story; I would love to hear what
everyone thinks.
Disclaimer: This is entirely fiction i.e. not true. I do not know Nsync or
the Backstreet Boys. The story is the result of a warped mind.
Warnings: JC bashing - sorry if it upsets anyone. Discussion of abuse and
rape.
Rating: NC-17, for graphic descriptions of rape and abuse.
Status: Complete

Part 22

Lance looked over at Alex nervously as he opened the door and allowed their
friends inside. This was going to be the final test of their friendship; he
prayed they would take the news okay. His friends were all he had now; he
couldn't bear losing them as he had lost everyone else. His parents had
refused to talk to him after watching the verdict; they had believed he was
lying after JC was found not guilty. He had even shown them his scars in an
attempt to make them see the truth that he wasn't laying. He couldn't,
wouldn't lie about something so serious but they had refused to believe him.

"What's wrong, Scoop?" Nick asked quickly once they were all sitting inside
Lance and AJ's living room.

Lance smiled nervously as he answered, "I have something to tell you. I--I'm
HIV+."

Chris shouted in both anger and shock, "WHAT? How?"

"JC or one of his friends I guess." Lance said quickly not wanting to look
up at them.

"Lance, look at me." Joey said anxiously, placing one hand under the
blonde's chin.

Lance looked up expecting to see disgust and pity but all he saw was worry.
They were worried about him; they did not hate him or pity him!

"How long have you known?"

Lance said quickly, "Since I was taken into hospital over seven weeks ago."

Kevin nodded, "Have you seen any doctors?"

"Yeah. They've given me a combination of pills to try and slow down the
progress of the disease."

"What did they say?" Ben asked worriedly.

Lance said honestly, "My white and T-cell counts are normal, they think I
must have caught the disease sometime in the last seven months."

Howie said, "We're here for you, you know that. My work with the Lupus
foundation gives me contact with all sorts of doctors. You want me to do
some asking around and see if I can an appointment with some specialists."

"That's alright. I'm okay with the doctors I have now. Now to change the
subject what are we going to do about JC?"

"We've decided that Nsync is over. We can form another band, if everyone
wants?"

Lance nodded, "I'm in."

"So am I." Joey said with a smirk.

Justin looked at his friends saying, "Me too, I guess."

Ben asked, "I know this is probably a stupid idea but, could you four join
with Backstreet?"

Joey said thoughtfully, "I'm not sure if that would be a good idea, nine
members is a little much for a boyband."

Justin spoke up with a grin, "Maybe not there are some groups with more
members."

"It would make sense, I guess." Kevin said looking around at the others who
nodded in agreement.

Lance said happily, "Okay, it's decided that the Backstreet Boys are now
nine as long as we can get Jive to agree."
********
Looking at the camera Carson said with a smile, "This is Carson Daly with a
special TRL Today. We have the Backstreet Boys in the studio. Can you
explain the reason for your coming on the show?"

Kevin said seriously, "We would like to make an announcement. The Backstreet
Boys are no longer."

A shocked silence suddenly erupted into screams and shouts of denial.
Holding up one hand, Carson signalled everyone to be quiet.

Once silence was established he asked, "So you are breaking up."

AJ smiled, "Not quite. We are evolving. We've decided to bring in a couple
of new members. We thought we could introduce them here on MTV."

"Come on out guys." Kevin continued with a smirk.

There were gasps of shock as the four other singers came into view. Lance
took his normal seat next to AJ; Justin gently shoved them so that he could
sit next to his Kevin while Chris and Joey sat next to Nick and Brian. It
was fairly cramped on the sofa, as the nine singers struggled to fit in.

"I must say it's a shock to see you four. How are you feeling after the
trial, Lance?"

"I'm handling it one day at a time. The guys have been great. If it wasn't
for them I wouldn't have coped."

"How do you feel knowing that JC is free?"

Justin said seriously, "We all feel it was a miscarriage of justice. We
don't want to be around JC anymore, that's why we broke up Nsync."

"I see. Are you nine keeping the name Backstreet Boys?"

"Our new name is Backstreet Nine. We're looking forward to bringing our
music to the world and the fans."

"How do you think the fans will react to the demise of Nsync?"

"We hope they can understand our reasons and will continue to enjoy the
music we're now creating we're creating now."

Carson nodded at Joey's answer asking, "Can I just ask about the current
tour? Will you complete the tour with just the original members or will the
new Backstreet Nine be performing?"

Brian smiled, "We will be performing as both Backstreet Nine and as the
Backstreet Boys."
*******
Eight Months Later

JC had disappeared shortly after the trial, which had led to AJ and Lance
being questioned by police. Soon the questioning had extended to the rest of
their friends as rumours increased about one of them taking revenge on JC
but after finding no evidence the rumours and investigations stopped. JC's
parents had made numerous appeals for him to contact them but had no answer.
The new Backstreet Nine did not care where JC was as long as he stayed away.
Sometimes in the middle of the night Lance wondered what had happened?

Lance grinned as he looked out the window at the beautiful garden. The last
eight months had been difficult but he was getting through it, Alex had been
there for everything, through all the tears and the anger. Now was the day
he was showing the world just what they meant to each other. It was a
perfect day, the sun was shining brightly, and the sweet perfume of flowers
filled the air.

At first, he had been reluctant to become involved in a relationship with
Alex, not wanting Alex to be stuck with someone who was dying but he could
not deny he loved Alex. It was Nick who had pointed out that anyone could
die at any time and that it was stupid for Lance to deny himself love
because he was HIV+. Lance had agreed with that statement, he had talked to
one man who had caught the disease in 1984 and still had no symptoms of
AIDS. The man had proven that having HIV did not mean you had a few years to
live. So Lance had taken the plunge about seven months ago and admitted that
he did love Alex, they had slowly started dating. Lance had proposed four
months ago just after Alex's birthday.

"Are you ready?" Howie asked gently as he touched the blonde's shoulder

"I'll be there in a second. How are they?"

Howie laughed, "They're terrified. The five of them are all pacing around. I
think there's going to be a large hole in the ground if we don't get
started."

Fixing his tie Lance said with a smirk, "Guess we should get the show on the
road then."

"Yeah, lets do it." Howie said with a grin.

The pair walked outside to the sound of Mozart playing softly, waiting in
front of the Priest was the other couple, but Lance didn't care about them.
All he cared about was his lover; he had never seen Alex look so beautiful.

"We are gathered here to complete the marriage ceremony of these couples.
These six have promised to remain together from now until the day they die.
They have written their own vows, first we shall hear Nick and Ben's, and
then Justin and Kevin followed by Lance and AJ."

Nick smiled as he looked into the eyes of his love, "Ben, you are the one
who gives me inspiration. I promise to always be there for you to rant at
when you are feeling mad. I promise to make you laugh when you feel like
crying. I give you this ring as a sign of my love and commitment to you, Ben
Affleck."

Ben said smiling, "I love you, Nick. I promise to always be there for you,
to listen to you and tell you when you are being an idiot. I give you this
ring as a sign of my eternal love and commitment to you, Nick Carter "

Staring at Justin Kevin waited a second before saying honestly, "Justin, to
me you are everything. In giving you this ring I promise to never go to bed
on an argument, to tell you everything, to let you win at chess occasionally
and love you until my last breath.

Justin gave a grin as he put the ring on Kevin's wedding finger saying,
"There's nothing more beautiful than you, Kevin. With this ring, I am
promising to help you whenever you are in trouble, to always support you, to
give you everything you need and to remember that you can be right
occasionally.

Picking up the larger of the matching set of gold rings Lance vowed, "Alex,
your love and support have seen me through the hardest trials of my life. I
live and breathe for you. I promise to listen to you even when you are being
annoying, to help when you are in trouble and to support you in all your
ventures. This ring is a sign of my love for you and my promise that I will
always believe and trust in you."

Placing the ring on his beloved's hand AJ said, " I love you. I trust you
and I need you. I promise to always be there for you, to always resolve our
fights and to give you the freedom to grow. I will help when you are being
too stubborn to see sense, to give you reason when you need it but most
importantly I promise to always love you. I give you this ring as a
commitment to keep these promises and as a sign of my never ending love for
you, James Lance Bass."

The Priest looked out at the sea of faces before saying, "With the
exchanging of rings in front of these witnesses, these six have declared
their commitment and love for their partners. Please join me in
congratulating them."

The audience erupted into happy cheers of congratulations as the three
couples kissed, overjoyed that they could finally show just what they meant
to each other. The six were simply overjoyed that finally they could
publicly show how much they loved each other.

Joey asked with a smile, "Got that camera ready?"

"Sure have." Brian answered with a smirk.

Brian snapped pictures of Nick who was busy kissing Kevin and Ben who was
passionately kissing Justin. His grin widened as the four broke apart with
Nick and Ben switching places so they could kiss Justin and Kevin
respectively. He captured the moment on film before hiding the camera when
they looked over at him.
*******
The next day Backstreet Nine along with Ben where scheduled to appear on
MTV, which they had decided to use as a means of telling everyone about
their sexuality. The six newly married couples were just like any newlyweds
and wanted to shout it from the rooftops. They knew the programme would
ensure a large number of people knew in a short amount of time.

A couple of hours before they were scheduled to appear the ten were sitting
around in Kevin and Justin's home trying to psyche themselves up, it was a
terrifying prospect. How would they cope if everyone hated them? By telling
people about this part of themselves, they were leaving themselves open to
all the homophobes but they were sure that their relationships were strong
enough to last.

"It'll be okay." Kevin said quickly as much to reassure him as the others.

Nick said biting his lip nervously, "I hope so. You think we should go on
holding hands or just wait until we're all sitting down to drop the
bombshell."

Lance shrugged, "Its up to you, if you need to hold hands then so be it."

"We should wait. I'll be okay," Nick said to himself before saying it a bit
louder to the others. Ben nodded and squeezed his husband's shoulder
tightly.

"Time to go." Joey said breaking the serene silence.
*******
"Now we're told that Backstreet Nine have a few special announcements to
make exclusively on TRL. After the last special announcement you made on the
show I've got to ask, you're not getting some more members in are you."

"Nothing like that. We have a few things we want to share with the world."
Nick said with a wide smile.

Brian nodded, "As fans may know we have just come back from Vermont. While
we were there a few of us got married."

Noting the place of the wedding Carson wondered if it was a gay marriage so
he asked, "Really? Who got married?"

Lance grinned, "Alex and I got married to each other."

"So did Justin and I."

Ben said with a small laugh, "Nick finally became my husband, a relief I
tell you. I thought we were never going to get the ceremony completed."

Nick said indignantly, "Hey, I only postponed it once. You were the one who
decided it would be cool for us to have a triple wedding."

Ben admitted, "It was cool, besides that way it stopped us having to panic
about who would get married first. All I'm saying is that it took a while
for us to actually get the ceremony, we were engaged for three years!"

Kevin stage whispered, "Ignore them, they'll stop arguing in a couple of
seconds. Then they'll be throwing lovesick looks at each other."

"Like you're any better than us, Kevy!" Ben said with a grin.

Carson ignored the byplay, "So how long have you all been dating?"

"Just and I have been dating ever since he turned up outside my bedroom door
saying he couldn't see or talk to me anymore. It must have been about 2
years and 2 months ago now."

"Sounds like a rather strange way to start dating. Why did you say that
Justin?"

Justin shrugged, "I was falling in love with him. I knew it wouldn't be
right for me to take advantage of him so I decided not to see him."

Kevin continued quickly, "What he didn't know was that I was also starting
to fall in love with him, so that day when he turned up at my room I told
him the truth. We started dating that day, the rest is history."

"Is the reason you got divorced, Kevin?" Carson asked suspiciously.

Kevin smiled, "In a way, yeah. Kris is my best friend. We both thought we
would never meet anyone we decided to get married. Since I am gay, it was
obvious that we could never be together but she wanted to help me out. She
knows all about Justin, she approves of him. When I decided that I wanted to
marry Justin one day Kris and I agreed to get a divorce, which we actually
did about six months ago."

"How about you, Ben and Nick? When did you start dating?"

Absently running one hand up and down Nick's arm Ben said with a fond grin,
"Two years and nine months ago I met Nick at a party. Everything clicked
right away, you know. We sneaked out the party and started talking. He was
going on about some film and all I could think about was that he could talk
about anything if I could just listen to his voice."

Nick said with a smirk, "So I'm sitting there talking and Benny's got this
totally spaced out look on his face, as if his brain had taken a vacation.
Thinking he wasn't listening I casually mention I'm gay and then he pins me
with his eyes and asks if I would like to go on a date with him."

Ben grinned, "You should have seen him, he was spluttering in shock. Then he
nodded. We didn't actually go on that date until a couple of weeks later. We
went to a Boyz II Men concert, I heard he liked them."

"It would have been a lot more fun if we weren't mobbed on the way home.
That was Benny's fault for pulling my hat off in Starbucks."

"Hey, I only wanted to see your hair. Besides we got back in one piece,
didn't we?"

"Yeah, but that was still your fault." Nick said with a laugh, ignoring the
way his husband was busy playing tracing patterns on his arm,

Carson interrupted saying seriously, "Its amazing that you've been dating so
long. Can I ask about your girlfriends, Nick?"

"They were friends or people Jive set me up with. I didn't want to be with
them, some of them had no idea I wasn't into women though and went a little
crazy after I told them."

Justin chimed in, "You mean like Willa. She went totally psycho, I should
know seeing how you told her at my place."

Nick grinned, "Did I ever thank you for getting your guards to throw her
out, Jup?"

"Oh, you thanked me." Justin said with a smirk remembering that night. God,
they hadn't been able to walk properly the day after. Luckily, they had been
able to spend the day in the pool.

Looking at his love AJ commented casually, "Our story doesn't seem as
exciting does it, James."

Lance laughed, "Not really. Alex and I got together about seven months ago,
it would have been sooner, but I was a little slow. Alex told me he loved me
a long time before that but it took me a while to realise that I was in love
with him too. Nick and Ben were the ones who made me see sense. We got
together and then I proposed. Alex accepted that was the best day of my
life."

"Even better than our wedding day, babe?"

Lance nodded, "Yeah because I knew when I proposed that we would get married
and finally we could shout our love from the rooftops."

Seeing the time Carson interrupted, "Well congratulations to all of you.
Would any of you like to request a song?"

"Yeah. I'd like to request I'll Stand By You by the Pretenders. Its our
song." AJ said seriously as he looked over at Lance.

There was a close up of the two of them seconds before the video played, in
the studio Lance smiled at his husband and saviour. He had never imagined
life could be this perfect. He had been saved from a life of terror and now
had a new family along with a husband. Never again would he spend his life
in fear, black eyes and blue tears where far behind him.


Fini

"You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you
probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the
world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you
alter, even by a millimeter, the way ... people look at reality, then you
can change it."
-- James Arthur Baldwin (1924-87), American writer, critic